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Monthly Archives: April 2012

I heard about Trika yoga classes in Rishikesh 4 years ago, but did not want to go there based on the description of classes from different people. Though many were excited and satisfied with the classes, I thought the style of the class was not for me. Now when a friend suggested we go to the class and I felt more open to various styles of yoga, I decided to give it a go.Trika yoga is a different name for Agama yoga which is present around the world and is based mostly in Thailand. This is a style of yoga that focuses on tantric practices and incorporates elements of kundalini and laya yoga. The accent is not as much on performing asanas for physical strength and stamina as on opening energy centers and listening to the flow of energy in very simple postures.
Now, all my previous posts were about the yoga teachers that I definitely recommend everyone to visit. This one is not. I just decided to try this class to give my personal feedback on it, be it positive or negative. As still after the class, it was difficult to come up with one definite conclusion, I will just list negative and positive aspects of the class that I have experienced, and leave it for you to decide whether you want to try it.Drawbacks:

the yoga hall in Swargashram is scary and badly maintained, it initially creates some cautious atmosphere.

poor ventilation in the yoga hall. After 10-15 minutes in the class I felt strong heartbeat and had to go out to get water. Immediately after I went out, I got better. In the entire hall, there were only one or two open windows which was not enough for the number of people and the size of the hall.

the class did not contain enough physical exercise, which is not very conductive to developing or pushing to the limit your physical body.

absent explanations on safety of performing asanas. At the same time, the selection of the asanas was not really safe – without sufficient explanation on how to perform the asanas on physical level, some asanas may be conductive to injury. For instance, we had cobra with full arms extension that was kept for over 5 minutes. My friend that also came to this class, experienced pain in lumbar for a couple of days after the class.

the other factor that contributed to poor explanation is that the girl was speaking in low voice, it was hard to hear her while standing in the third row, some instructions we just missed, others guessed at random.

even as we tried to follow the instructions, in overall the class seemed a little boring. Of course that may be due to our lack of patience that needs to be developed, but the impression was common among three of us that visited the class.

Strengths:

the class can be suitable for beginners as it does not contain many asanas or advanced practices, provided that precautions are taken for cobra and similar potentially problematic postures.

despite poorly audible directions, when the teacher noticed that someone did not follow her instructions, she always came up to clarify them personally.

I really felt the pulsation of a definite body part in each asana, and entire body pulsation in savasana and meditation. However, this cannot be entirely credited to the class itself as feeling subtle sensations in the body has become quite easy and even habitual for me. Still, I did feel the desired, quite strong effect after the class and can believe that other people who take Trika yoga courses feel such effect too.

This is my personal impression, and it also depends on the teacher. Moreover, I suspect we got to some first class of they course, and they teach one asana per each lesson, so by the end of the course you are supposed to do a lot of asanas in one class. If you tried this style of yoga and have your own opinion, you’re most welcome to leave it here.Timing and Place: In case you want to check it out, the yoga hall of Trika yoga is situated near main office of Swargashram, Ramjhula, Rishikesh. The evening class is 4PM, but there are some other classes and lectures, timing to which you can find out on your own. Anyay, Rishikesh is full of their colorful advertisements so you will surely not miss it.